NCT03964467

Priming With tDCS: Expanding the Window of Recovery in Chronic Stroke

Status unknown NA Last updated 6 February 2023

What this trial tests

NA trial testing transcranial direct current stimulation in Upper Extremity Paresis in 14 participants. Status unknown.

Timeline

14 January 2019

Primary endpoint
14 April 2023

14 April 2023

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
Phase	NA
Status	Status unknown
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	triple
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	14
Start date	14 January 2019
Primary completion	14 April 2023
Estimated completion	14 April 2023
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• transcranial direct current stimulation

Conditions studied

• Upper Extremity Paresis — all drugs for Upper Extremity Paresis →

Sponsor

University of the Sciences in Philadelphia

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Upper Extremity Paresis. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Stroke often leads to long-term disability including upper extremity (UE) dysfunction even with the provision of timely rehabilitation services. Brain injury stemming from stroke, affecting the corticospinal system results in weakness, alterations in muscle tone and incoordination during the performance of functional tasks. Recovery of functional task performance after injury to the corticospinal system involves a residual neural network that engages the premotor cortex, frontal cortex and supplementary motor cortex. In particular, the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) is anatomically and physiologically poised to reorganize and support motor recovery after corticospinal damage. The goal of this study is to determine the feasibility and efficacy of stimulating the ipsilesional PMd in adults with chronic stroke using noninvasive anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) during the training sessions of a 4-week circuit-based, UE, task-related training (TRT) program. Pilot data from six adults, using anodal tDCS over the injured PMd just before each session of TRT, led to significant improvements in UE function in 5 of the 6 adults after only 4 weeks of training. We will assess the motor function of both arms using clinical assessments immediately before and after the 4-week TRT program. In addition to effects of tDCS-primed UE-TRT on clinical outcomes, we will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine the changes in neural network reorganization. We hypothesize that the training program will reveal significant improvement in motor function based on clinical assessment as well as significant global network changes based on resting state functional MRI and hybrid diffusion MR imaging. The long-term goal of this research is to develop an effective intervention strategy to improve UE function in individuals with moderate impairment from chronic stroke.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial.